St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-06-24
RUSSIA's TAX ON EGGS.
A Novel Scheme to Replenish the
Imperial Treasury.

A Novel Scheme to RepIenish the
Imperial Treasury.
London Telegraph.
Distressed chancellOrs of the ex-
chequer in search of a new source of
revenue can not be recommended to take
example by an extraordinary and I'M
precenented tax which is soon to be
levied in the Russian empire. Fiscal
inventiveness must bave reached very
low level when it is seriously proposed
to put tax on eggs. Yet, according to
our Berlin correspondent, this appears
to be the expedient which cOmmends it
self to the MuScovite ministry of finance
as the best available plan for filling a
depleted eXchequer with any number
of kopeeks and rubles. The sys-
hens egg which is laid is to be
taxed a quarter-kopeck, sum
about equal i'll English money to third
part of a penny, but that only the first
twenty eggs are to be liable to taxation.
1t is somewhat strangely added that this
course is adopted in order to further
the breeding of poultry" To lay a
duty on eggs is rather a Hibernian
| method of inducing people to go in on
an extensive scale for poultry farming.
The hen, however, is an intelligent ami
| NAL to a certain point, and, no doubt,
when it hears of the new tax it will be
stimulated to lay eggs as fast as it can,
so as to get beyond the taxable twenty.
The cackiing which will ensue in farm
yard when any gallinaceous mother
reaches it's twenty-firSt deposit will be
tremendous. And the system has the
| distinct advantage that it will induce
hens to learn to count correctly.
Hitherto this branch of their education
has been much neglected. No school
board has thought it worth while to go
out into the fields and commons and
| fOWl-runs and compel the feathered
deniZenS to come in and be taught. In
| Russia, however, all this will now be
changed. Hens which can count up to
| twenty will be far more valuable than
hens which have not reached that ex-
allied pitch of mental precocity. The
| former will be self-regiStering machines
| for counting their own eggs; the latter
will be compelled to carry multiplica--
ton tables and ready reckOners" about
with them, and will get their owners
into trouble with the tax-collectOr by.
| giving wrong totals of their product.
saying they have laid thirty-Six eggs,for.
example, when, as matter of fact, they
have only reached Twenty-Five. The
| motto for a farm-yard in future will be-
every hem it's own c0lenSo." We
can only imagine the state of intellect
udl WUlCu SIuDlu, ulcuu-N
Gated, unmathematlcal hens will get
into over the tale of the eggs they have
laid. Putting aside the fact that they.
will naturally feel prompted to get up
to the magic tax-free total of tWenty
as quickly as possible, and that this
will lead to storytelling and to dis:
| tinet lowering of the moral standards
now happily prevalent in well-con-,
Quoted farmyardS, we may also bear in
mind that hens not all fhQD1
wranglerS by nature, and that the CALI
on their reasoning faculties which iSf
| about to be made in Russia is thing
to which they have never had to submit
before. When they are past the first
| fifteen. and are getting up to twenty
| they may very likely lose count, and4
then we shall see distracted hens retir-
| ing behind haystackS to try to-
| puzzle out the problem, and doing long.
and complicated and quite unnecessary!
sums of addition and subtraction and.
| multiplication in their own heads. If
| to-day is the 1st of July, and | began
| laying eggs on the 1st of May, and Hay
| two or three week-so the sum will
run-''what is the present number of
eggs which l have laid this season?''
And the answer will, as likely as not.
come out in cubic inches, pounds, ShiIl-
ings and pence. At which neither the
| farmer nor the taX-gatherer will be
| pleased.
| There is method in the madness Of
| the MuScOvite finance ministry, for the.
exact number of hens in the Russian
empire has been estimated as prelimi-t
! nary by the imposition of the novel tax.
| There are are said to be 100000, COOS
| feathered egg-layers of the farmyard in;
| that mighty territory, each of which is:
| computed to lay on an average twenty{
| eggs per annum. 1t is, therefore, nots
very generous to allow hens, after their
| twentieth egg, to go free, if, as a rule
| they stop short at that quantity. The
| twenty eggs, at a quarter of kopeck(
! apiece, laid by these 100,000,OO0 hens,
are calculated to produce revenue of;
| 100000 rubleS, and nobody can pre-
| tend that Russian finance is in a c0ndi-
| ton to deSpiSe an addition of that subj
| Stantial kind. Ducks are to count thee
! same as hens, but turkeys lay such
| large eggs that it is considered a veryl
| debatable point whether they shall bee
| taxed at larger figure than their Smalls
| feathered relatives. Over this subjects
the finance ministry is now puzzled; all{
| the heads of departments and financial;
officials at st. Petersburg and Moscow
| are consulting together. and whenf
| the result of their deliberations is made
| known there will be woe in the hearts of
farmers and cottagerS from the White
| std W lLt CAUCASUS. Lie GSSS
are estimated to add another two or
three MILAN rubleS, and the whole sum
to be raised out of the farm-yard gener- /;
| ally will, it is sanguinely hoped, amount (
to the grand total of 10,000,000 rOubleS.
Even if this financial law comes into
| effect in Russia, which is still very
doubtful, we do not aRticipate that Mr.. /
| GOSchen will feel disposed to initiate it. !
| The cutlery from the agricultural COM |
munity would be too overpowering, )
! and f1nanciers still wildly remembers
Lord sherbrooke-s unhappy, fate !
| over the match tax, which he
| introduced SO jauntily and was
obliged to withdraw so promptly. !!
| AS to taxing English eggs, the mere at
tempt to do anything of the sort would (
| almost raise a fowl revolution. The
| free-born British hen is a very different
| sort of bird from the rooster who has i
! grown up under the ears deSpotic rule
and the British barn-dOor fowl might be !
| depended upon to stand no nonsense, :
and to assert its right to produce eggs
| against any chancellor of the exchequer !.
/ that ever breathed. How OH earth could &
such tax be successfully collected? Itf
| is impossible to administer interroga- .
| tories on oath to fowls, and it would .
need an army of inspectors to go round !;
every poultry-yard in the kingdom once |
day in order to get any idea CT the de- :
gree of fecundity of the hens at any